| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: the idols of the East, while
The isles saw that, and feared,
And the ends of the earth were afraid;
They drew near, they came together;
Everyone helped his neighbour,
And said to his brother, Be of good courage.
The carver encouraged the smith,
He that smoothed with the hammer
Him that smote on the anvil;
Saying of the solder, It is good;
And fixing the idol with nails, lest it be moved;
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: "Nu, are we ready?" cried Fritz, who stood, supporting Elsa's elbow in his
hand, at the foot of the steps. It was immediately discovered that Karl
was lost.
"Ka--rl, Karl--chen!" we cried. No response.
"But he was here one moment ago," said Herr Langen, a tired, pale youth,
who was recovering from a nervous breakdown due to much philosophy and
little nourishment. "He was sitting here, picking out the works of his
watch with a hairpin!"
Frau Kellermann rounded on him. "Do you mean to say, my dear Herr Langen,
you did not stop the child!"
"No," said Herr Langen; "I've tried stopping him before now."
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: "That ever since you stood before me in that hole at Chiricahua
I've loved you? You can't see I've been another man, loving you,
working for you, living for you? You won't believe I've turned
my back on the old wild life, that I've been decent and honorable
and happy and useful--your kind of a cowboy? You couldn't tell,
though I loved you, that I never wanted you to know it, that I
never dared to think of you except as my angel, my holy Virgin?
What do you know of a man's heart and soul? How could you tell
of the love, the salvation of a man who's lived his life in the
silence and loneliness? Who could teach you the actual truth--
that a wild cowboy, faithless to mother and sister, except in
The Light of Western Stars |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: rogueries. That, of course, is just what State Law would do; but
we must not save the credit of the allegory by a quip. Not until
she reappears in the next play (The Valkyries) does her function
in the allegorical scheme become plain.
One preconception will bewilder the spectator hopelessly unless
he has been warned against it or is naturally free from it. In
the old-fashioned orders of creation, the supernatural personages
are invariably conceived as greater than man, for good or evil.
In the modern humanitarian order as adopted by Wagner, Man is the
highest. In The Rhine Gold, it is pretended that there are as yet
no men on the earth. There are dwarfs, giants, and gods. The
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